Why not put the makers of Japanese steels on the blade like with US steels?

[Cereal_killer]

Just noticed this today, Carpenters and Crucible have their names on the blades, "CPM-S30V", "CTS-204P" why don't the JAP steels have their names on the blades? In the listed specs for ZDP it says "Hitachi" and with Super Blue again it specifically lists Aogami, so why not put it on the blade?

The answer I come up with in my head is Carpenters and Crucible require it contractually and the JAP makers don't, but that's purely speculation on my part. Any ideas?

And yes, I realize "CPM-S30V" is the name of the steel, but so is "Aogami Super Blue".

 

[gooeytek]

Maybe because "Hitachi ZDP-189/420J2" (laminate) and "Aogami Super Blue" might be a tad too long?

 

[SouthEast]

i think 'aogami' means "blue" (ao) and gami means steel. it goes with Gin1/ Gingami : Silversteel, Shirogami : Whitesteel.
as for the maker, it is Hitachi who makes them. as far as I know, CPM is the name of the technology used on the steel, not to mention the producer of the steel.

 

[Spiggles]

Gami means paper- if conjoined with another word. Hence Origami- folding paper. FWIW

 

[The Deacon]

Gami means paper- if conjoined with another word. Hence Origami- folding paper. FWIW

Which makes sense, given that Super Blue isn't blue, it just comes from the steel mill wrapped in blue paper. As for the rest, the steel names shown on the blade may simply be what their respective manufacturers chose to name them.

 

[SouthEast]

you're right! pardon my mistakes.

 

[nccole]

Paper makes sense because it is called Super Blue because of the blue paper it comes wrapped in. It is simply a way to organize raw steels. And yes, CPM does not stand for Crucible, and CTS is not in front of all Carpenter steels, so my guess is that CTS stands for some powder technology as well. VG-10 might be a good one to investigate because I doubt only one foundry is making it. I do remember that Hitachi makes ZDP-189, but it depends on the knife maker (Moki and another I cannot remember) whether it is laminated or not. One laminates Super Blue, but not ZDP and the other laminates ZDP but not SB. If you could keep it straight, you can identify where the knife is made. It seems that the maker of the laminated ZDP and non-laminated SB makes the higher end higher quality knives in my experience.

 

[treeshaker]

excellent answer, I am a monster fan of these higher end steels.. What does JAP mean ? thanks for the excellent answer

Paper makes sense because it is called Super Blue because of the blue paper it comes wrapped in. It is simply a way to organize raw steels. And yes, CPM does not stand for Crucible, and CTS is not in front of all Carpenter steels, so my guess is that CTS stands for some powder technology as well. VG-10 might be a good one to investigate because I doubt only one foundry is making it. I do remember that Hitachi makes ZDP-189, but it depends on the knife maker (Moki and another I cannot remember) whether it is laminated or not. One laminates Super Blue, but not ZDP and the other laminates ZDP but not SB. If you could keep it straight, you can identify where the knife is made. It seems that the maker of the laminated ZDP and non-laminated SB makes the higher end higher quality knives in my experience.

 

[EZ Bake]

Yeah, CTS is Carpenter Tool Steel (made by Carpenter Products). The CTS family of alloys is special or different than Carpenter's other products, so it's really a designator for that specific product, not a company name.

http://www.cartech.com/ssalloysprod.aspx?id=3710

http://www.cartech.com/whatsnew.aspx?id=3684


Same with Crucible (as was previously said), CPM stands for Crucible Particle Metallurgy (which is a designator for a proprietary process in manufacturing a specific suite of Crucible's products):

http://www.crucible.com/eselector/general/generalpart4.html

http://www.crucibleservice.com/eselector/general/generalpart3.html


Also, it's worth noting that M390 and ELMAX (or the even more rare, El Max ) are all made by Bohler-Uddeholm and you don't see Bohler's name on the blade (same with 8CR13MOV - you don't see Latrobe Specialty Metals name on the blade) so the German and Chinese manufacturers need to come up with some cool suite of products to get their designator on there :thumbup:.

 

[Jason B.]

Hitachi blue, white, yellow and whatever color steels have their name because its the color of the paper the steel comes wrapped in.